Assaults in the Metropolitan Police Service

Report: 7
Date: 11 July 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report details further research and analysis the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has undertaken in relation to assaults on staff.

A. Recommendation

That members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Summary trend analysis

1. The overall number of assaults appears to have increased but there has been a marked corresponding decrease in assaults resulting in serious injury.

2. There is no single cause for this increase and it may actually result from improved reporting and an increase in the ‘population’ at risk as a result of higher numbers of staff deployed operationally etcetera.

3. Human Resources (HR) and Territorial Policing (TP) are working together to learn as much as possible about the reasons for the trends and address them through improved awareness. The MPS has recently received several awards for a new officer safety awareness DVD entitled ‘The Worst Enemy’.

4. Metropolitan Police Accident Incident Reporting (MetAir) data reported that physical assaults were 18% higher in 2004 than 2003 (This should not be confused with the data on the Crime Reporting Information System (CRIS) as this captures all incidents, not just where “harm” has occurred). Analysis of this increase, however, shows:

• a reduction in associated major injuries of 27 %
• a reduction of over 3-day injuries of 11%
• an increase in reports of minor injuries by 18%.

5. Care should be exercised over the integrity of the data particularly in the first six months of 2003 after the introduction of the MetAir system where a level of under reporting may have been experienced. Data integrity should improve as a result of improved awareness of the reporting system.

6. Probable Causal Factors for Overall Assault Increase: There is no obvious single cause for this increase but it is likely to reflect a spread of probable causal factors that may have influenced the data reported. These historical factors include:

• The increase in minor injury assault reports should be viewed, at this stage, as a positive trend and may be indicative of staff more willing to notify all minor injuries. This in itself may reflect a shifting opinion of the developing safety culture and it is important that we learn from these occurrences.
• Increased growth in the workforce and frontline operational police officers and staff (Table 1) (increasing the population exposed to the risk of assault). This includes the deployment of new operational police staff roles during this period including Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) and dedicated detention officers.

Table 1: Correlation between population growth and assaults

• Increased levels of probationers reducing the experience pool.
• Officer safety training trainer to recruit ratio standard was exceeded during the subject period.
• Shortage of sergeants reducing supervision during the subject period.
• Introduction of the MetAir system and concurrent encouragement to report all incidents.
• Reduction in entry fitness level requirement which was a national initiative reflecting gender issues.

Geographical analysis

7. A comparison of assaults by operational and non-operational command units and departments indicated highest numbers reported were associated with Trident and Safer Street boroughs. It is a Health and Safety branch view that this geographic trend is probably consistent with the location and nature of the policing environment. In the ten boroughs with the highest level of assaults the number of assaults increased slightly and the number of arrests decreased slightly (Table 2).

Table 2: 10 highest boroughs with assaults and arrest performance

Seasonal and weekly analysis

8. Higher levels of assaults are recorded at weekends and in July. The reasons for these increases cannot yet be identified from MetAir data but are most likely due to increased social activity during these periods. There was also an increase in September 2004, this being due to the Countryside Alliance demonstrations.

Gender analysis

9. The number of physical assaults of female personnel increased slightly in 2004 and could be linked to an increase of 600 female officers over the reference period. In addition, 25% of this increase is linked to the rise in assaults on female PCSOs (Table 3).

Table 3: Gender Analysis

Black and minority ethnic people/communities analysis

10. MetAir system does not currently collate data in a format that allows further analysis for black and minority ethnic people/communities.

Correlation and analysis of other issues

11. Data on violent and non-violent arrests could not be recovered. There is no apparent correlation between assault levels in the boroughs listed at Table 2 and total uniform or probationer headcount. Single crewing could not be linked to assault levels as data does not exist and Territorial Policing strategy is to risk assess suitability on a daily basis. It is reiterated that factors referred to in paragraph 4 may have influenced the increase in physical assaults recorded on MetAir.

Working days lost through assault

12. The number of working days lost in 2004 due to assaults was 4,520 (66 Traffic Warden, 191 PCSO, 4,252 Police officer and 11 other - source MetHR) representing approximately four ward based policing teams.

Ongoing action

13. The next full analysis of assault trends will be reported to the MPS Management Board in February 2006 (capturing the third calendar year of MetAir data). Health and Safety branch will also cross compare a sample of Crime Report Information System data with MetAir data at borough level and report back to Management Board when the analysis was completed. The Branch, in consultation with Territorial Policing, will continue to monitor and review trends and if a clearer picture on female assault levels develops the Branch will bring this to the attention of Management Board. Injury data provided by the Health and Safety Branch is being used by Territorial Policing to assess possible improvements in officer safety training.

List of abbreviations

MPS – Metropolitan Police Service
HR – Human Resources
TP – Territorial Policing
PCSO – Police Community Support Officer
CRIS – Crime Report Information System
PIB – Performance Indicator Bureau

C. Race and equality impact

There are no direct implications on equalities and diversity arising from this report.

D. Financial implications

There are no direct financial implications arising from this report as such but clearly a reduction in assaults will impact on costs, in particular opportunity costs. The costs of complying with the audit will be met from within existing budgets.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Louis Backwell, Head of Health and Safety, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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